The Clix Marketing Blog’s Weekly #PPC News and Views for June 21st, 2010

The overwhelming summer heat seems to have put a damper on the volume of PPC-related news this week. Nevertheless, I was able to gather together a decent list of important announcements and helpful articles for this week’s PPC news and views list.

The Click Equations Blog: We all know that ad writing and testing is a tremendously important piece of the PPC puzzle. But do you know the most effective methods for ad testing? This article breaks down the steps in the text ad testing process from start to finish – a great resource.

Inside AdWords:Google’s display ad network continues to grow, and so does their cache of display advertising features and targeting options. In an effort to better-position all of these options for advertisers, Google has created an “umbrella name” – the Google Display Network.

Search Engine Watch: Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 6 months, you know that Yahoo! and Microsoft will be merging their search properties into the Search Alliance. This article explains how Yahoo!’s tools and services for PPC will be phased out and transitioned to the Microsoft adCenter platform.

Search Engine Land: Google is testing more ad types in the SERPs. This time it is “related ads” where Google is matching ads “for related queries or refinements of the user’s original query.” Is this a user-facing manifestation of expanded broad match? Guess we’ll find out if/when Google decides to launch this feature.

WordStream: It is here: The Ultimate Guide to Quality Score. WordStream interviewed 15 PPC experts (including Clix’s own Joe Kerschbaum) and put together their views and advice on Quality Score. Topics range from troubleshooting to methodology and even prioritization of Quality Score improvement tactics.

Search Engine Land: Keyword bid management is not an easy task. PPC managers and PPC software engineers alike struggle with finding the perfect process for managing bids. A major part of understanding how to manage bids is understanding how the bid auction really works. This article explains just that and reveals some of the subtleties of bid management.